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Objective: To update the prior systematic review from studies published in the past 9 years that examine the effects of condom social marketing (CSM) programs on condom use in low- and middle-income countries.Data Sources: PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Sociological Abstracts, and EMBASE. Hand searching of AIDS, AIDS and Behavior, AIDS Care, and AIDS Education and Prevention.Study Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria: (a) Published from 1990 to January 16, 2019, (b) low- or middle-income country, (c) evaluated CSM, (d) analyses across preintervention to postintervention exposure or across multiple study arms, (e) measured condom use behavior, and (f) sought to prevent HIV transmission.Data Extraction: Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, 2 reviewers extracted citation, inclusion criteria, methods, study population, setting, sampling, study design, unit of analysis, loss to follow-up, comparison group characteristics, intervention characteristics, and eligible outcome results.Data Synthesis: The 2012 review found 6 studies (combined N = 23 048). In a meta-analysis, the pooled odds ratio for condom use was 2.01 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.42-2.84) for the most recent sexual encounter and 2.10 (95% CI: 1.51-2.91) for a composite of all condom use outcomes. Studies had significant methodological limitations. Of 518 possible new citations identified in the update, no new articles met our inclusion criteria.Conclusions: More studies are needed with stronger methodological rigor to help provide evidence for the continued use of this approach globally. There is a dearth of studies over the past decade on the effectiveness of CSM in increasing condom use in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC).

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Noncommunicable diseases are on pace to outnumber infectious disease as the leading cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa, yet many questions remain unanswered with concern toward effective methods of screening for type II diabetes mellitus (DM) in this resource-limited setting. We aim to design a screening algorithm for type II DM that optimizes sensitivity and specificity of identifying individuals with undiagnosed DM, as well as affordability to health systems and individuals.

To review the effectiveness of interventions to increase HIV serostatus disclosure in low and middle-income countries.

A community empowerment-based response to HIV is a process by which sex workers take collective ownership of programmes to achieve the most effective HIV outcomes and address social and structural barriers to their overall health and human rights. Community empowerment has increasingly gained recognition as a key approach for addressing HIV in sex workers, with its focus on addressing the broad context within which the heightened risk for infection takes places in these individuals. However, large-scale implementation of community empowerment-based approaches has been scarce. We undertook a comprehensive review of community empowerment approaches for addressing HIV in sex workers. Within this effort, we did a systematic review and meta-analysis of the effectiveness of community empowerment in sex workers in low-income and middle-income countries. We found that community empowerment-based approaches to addressing HIV among sex workers were significantly associated with reductions in HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, and with increases in consistent condom use with all clients. Despite the promise of a community-empowerment approach, we identified formidable structural barriers to implementation and scale-up at various levels. These barriers include regressive international discourses and funding constraints; national laws criminalising sex work; and intersecting social stigmas, discrimination, and violence. The evidence base for community empowerment in sex workers needs to be strengthened and diversified, including its role in aiding access to, and uptake of, combination interventions for HIV prevention. Furthermore, social and political change are needed regarding the recognition of sex work as work, both globally and locally, to encourage increased support for community empowerment responses to HIV.